Decapitation in Islam

Decapitation was a standard method of capital punishment in pre-modern Islamic law. By the end of the 20th century, its use had been abandoned in most countries. Decapitation is still a legal method of execution in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Yemen. In Iran, beheading was last used in 2001 according to Amnesty International, but it is no longer in use. In recent decades, extremist Salafi jihadist groups have used beheading as a method of killing captives and terror tactic.